Colin Kaepernick Is Only a Short-Term Fix for the San Francisco 49ers

Let me know when you can tell what year it is as I set the scene.

Midseason is approaching and the San Francisco 49ers are struggling under a new head coach. Specifically, their offense has plunged to embarrassingly low and cavernous depths. They need a savior at quarterback, but none is available because diamonds in the rough rarely exist at that position.

So they settle for the next-best thing: a fresh arm that will hopefully rejuvenate the offense, pushing the current starter aside while keeping the whole operation from careening off the tracks.

It’s all right if the seasons of 49ers football and their quarterback disarray are blending together. In fact they should, because in 2015 Colin Kaepernick was the guy who received the trapdoor treatment.

Now, in 2016, he’s the human life ring coming to save a fanbase from watching San Francisco’s passing offense in its current toilet-bowl-circling state.

Niners head coach Chip Kelly announced Tuesday that Kaepernick would mercifully take the starting-quarterback keys from Blaine Gabbert, making his first start in Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills.

Colin Kaepernick has regained his role as the 49ers’ starting quarterback, Chip Kelly said.

— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoCSN) October 11, 2016

Kelly served us all a tablespoon of intrigue about Kaepernick’s fit in his system. The main course, though, is just relief that Gabbert won’t spend as much time masquerading as a starter anymore.

We’ll never know if Gabbert would have won the job during a true training-camp competition. Kaepernick was still recovering from multiple offseason surgeries during part of August, and prior to that was limited in OTAs. He didn’t take a snap until Week 3 of the preseason. By that time, Gabbert was far ahead mentally in his grasp of a new offense, which made him the starter by default.

Now, a completely unsurprising truth as revealed itself: Gabbert is woefully inept and not a starting-caliber NFL quarterback.

The kindest statement that can be made about Gabbert’s present and future is to call him an adequate backup. You can feel sort of, kind of comfortable giving him the ball for a spot start or two because of an injury.

Beyond that, Gabbert is the same quarterback who became the worst draft bust in recent memory and was responsible for plenty of people losing their jobs with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Gabbert failing as a starter is the most yawn-inducing and predictable development of the still young 2016 NFL season. Exactly how bad was he while being allowed to start over a quarter of the 49ers’ schedule for some …

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